Slow Travels-Nevada

By Lyn Wilkerson

Slow Travels-Nevada explores the historic sites along the routes of U.S. Highways 6, 40, 50, 93, and 95 through the Silver State. Based on the American Guide Series of the 1930's and 40's, these sites include abandoned mining camps, scenic rivers and canyons, as well as the cities of Reno and Las Vegas. Reference maps and GPS coordinates are included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lyn Wilkerson
• Release date: Aug 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452379258

Lyn Wilkerson

Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

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Table of Contents

U.S. Highway 6

U.S. Highway 40

U.S. Highway 50

U.S. Highway 93

U.S. Highway 95

U.S. Highway 6

U.S. Highway 6, the Cape-Cod-Los Angeles road—longest road bearing the same number—crosses south-central Nevada diagonally, for the most part through mountainous country and desert. It passes close to Mount Wheeler, second highest peak in Nevada, through four national forests, through the Ely copper districts, and through the Tonopah area, scene of the State's second great mining boom. At many points ranges and abrupt outcroppings of rock are brilliantly banded with color, particularly striking when the sun is low.

In Nevada, U.S. Highway 6 followed the earlier route of the Roosevelt Midland Trail through Ely and Tonopah, then turning south at Goldfield and then west into California at Lida.

In May and June of 1827, Jedediah Strong Smith attempted to find a route from California's Central Valley to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah, and he became the first European to completely cross what is now Nevada. Because Smith's journal and map have never been found, his exact route is unknown. Based on Smith's own statements about his difficult trip, modern Nevada historians and geographers have pieced together the most plausible route. Smith crossed the Sierra Nevada at Ebbetts Pass (California Highway 4), swung southeast along or across the headwaters and the middle reaches of Walker River, and passed into central Nevada's trackless waste south of Walker Lake. He entered Smoky Valley on its southwest side in June of 1827, and crossed the valley in a northeasterly direction. He then paralleled the future Simpson Survey, route of the Pony Express and Overland Stage, along modern U.S. Highway 50.

The route through Nevada is a segment in the predecessor of U.S. Highway 50, the Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway connected New York and San Francisco by the most direct route. The first named highway, it was the brainchild of Carl G. Fisher, an entrepreneur who helped start the Indianapolis 500 auto race and later developed the beach resort of Miami Beach, Florida.

Utah State Line

As planned in 1926, U.S. Highway 50 traveled almost exactly the same path as it does today. However, between 1929 and 1953, the highway was rerouted to serve Salt Lake City. During this time, between Ely, Nevada, and Green River, Utah, U.S. 50 followed present-day U.S. 93 and 93A from Ely north to Wendover, then paralleled U.S. Highway 40 east to Salt Lake City. At Salt Lake City, U.S. Highway 50 turned south along U.S. Highways 89-91 to Spanish Fork, then southeast along current U.S. 6 to Green River. In 1953, U.S. Highway 50 was rerouted to its original, 1926 routing.i

Junction with Baker Shortcut Road (3 miles west of Utah Line on U.S. 6 and U.S. 50)

Side Trip to Great Basin National Park (Baker Shortcut Road South, Nevada Highway 487 South, Nevada Highway 488 West)

Great Basin National Park (3 miles south on Baker Shortcut Road, 1.5 miles south on NV 487, 5.5 miles west on NV 488)

Great Basin National Park incorporates what was once Lehman Caves National Monument. The caves, all deep underground, were discovered about 1878 when a horse driven by Abe Lehman, who was hauling logs down the mountainside, broke through the earth's crust, revealing the cavity. In some degree Lehman explored the chambers, though they were not fully known until much later. The caverns extend 1,400 feet from the entrance, go down 200 feet, and have no natural entrance.

Black Horse (14 miles west of Utah State Line on U.S. 6 and U.S. 50)

Side Trip to Osceola (County Road 35 Southwest)

Osceola (7 miles southwest on CR 35)

Osceola, most famous of the White Pine County gold producers, was probably the longest-lived placer camp in Nevada. The gold-bearing quartz belt found in 1872 was twelve miles long by seven miles wide. Placer gold was found in 1877 in a deep ravine indenting the area. Miners first used the simpleprocess of the common 49 rocker. Hydraulic monitors later were used to mine the gold from the 10 foot to 200 foot-thick gravel beds. One gold nugget found was valued at $6,000. Osceola was a good business town because of its location near the cattle and grain ranches in the Spring and Snake Valleys. Famous district mines were the Cumberland, Osceola, Crescent and Eagle, Verde, Stem-Winder, Gilded Age, Grandfather Snide, Red Monster and The Saturday Night. The camp produced nearly $5 million, primarily in gold, with some silver, lead and tungsten.

Junction with County Road 16 (36 miles west of Black Horse on U.S. 6 and U.S. 50)

Side Trip to Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park (County Road 16 West, County Road 45 South)

Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park (5 miles west on CR 16, 2 miles south on CR 45)

These six well-preserved ovens furnished charcoal for the furnaces at Ward. Pinion pine was the raw material fed to the ovens. Each oven could produce a $600 batch of charcoal which sold for 18 cents a bushel.

Ward (5 miles west on CR 16, 0.5 mile north on CR 45, 2 miles west on local road)

Ward was a typical, lawless mining camp in its early years. This camp of 2,000 citizens was situated at over 8,000 feet in elevation, where winter was a time of deep snow and icy winds. Hogs ran at random on the streets; and women were known to have roamed and begged for food. A Chinatown came into being. Killings were not infrequent, and early justice was by the vigilante committee and hanging rope. A million dollars’ worth of silver was taken from a single chamber of the Ward mine. The boom lasted from 1872 to 1882. Reform Gulch, or Frogtown, was located a mile south of the city. Here, ladies of the night set up for business in tents. One abandoned brothel was used for a school house. No movement was ever started to build a church. There has been recurrent interest in the Ward Mining District as new discoveries were found and better mining methods developed.

East Ely (49 miles west of Black Horse on U.S. 6 and U.S. 50)

When William Boyce Thompson bought this site in the period when the smelter for the Nevada Consolidated Silver Company was being constructed, it was to have been the trade and fine residential center of the mining and smelting area. Moved by a desire to avoid the social and labor difficulties caused by mixed groups in Montana copper towns, the organizers of the mining and smelting corporations agreed to Colonel Thompson’s plan of establishing a central city at this place. It was agreed that a town site company organized by Thompson should erect substantial homes for the technical employees of the two corporations and try to induce outsiders to buy home sites. This plan did not please old Ely residents in the least. They saw no reason why their property along the road through the canyon one mile to the east should be ignored. Forestalling attempts to build up the old town, the town site company took options on all unoccupied land in Ely, and then set up a company that ordained water rights for the spring, east of the town, on which Ely depended. Excursion groups of home seekers were brought from Salt Lake City on the Southern Pacific Railroad and down over the new company railroad, the Nevada Northern, to view the place and a few large houses were built to demonstrate what a fine modern community this was to be. There was a gala air for a while, and loud were the prophecies of a metropolis. But the promoters, more experienced in the sale of mining stock than in selling city real estate, began to raise prices of lots weekly to produce an artificial boom. They also set such high standards of design and fireproof construction for the houses to be erected that would-be purchasers were discouraged.

Further trouble came from Ely citizens determined to block the use of the spring that would give the rival city water. More that rivalry was behind the protest—Ely residents felt that they would get only as much water as the new town did not need. Men with shotguns camped on the hillsides to prevent construction of the water pipe through Ely. General economic conditions favored Ely, for the depression of 1907 cut off funds for development of the model town. When technical employees arriving to operate the new smelter came to claim the comfortable houses promised in their contracts, most found themselves placed in barracks built for construction workers. That marked the end of the plan for a central copper city.

Side Trip to Ely (U.S. Highway 50 West)

Ely (1 mile west of on U.S. 50)

Ely came into existence as the usual gold-mining camp in 1868, a year after Indian John had guided prospectors to what he believed were likely deposits. In 1869, a 10-ton lead blast furnace was built to serve the new Robinson District, and a 10-stamp mill was built in the following year. Production was poor, however, and neither these mills nor others erected in later years had much profit. The camp began to assume further importance in 1886, when the courthouse of White Pine County was moved to it from declining Hamilton. Three years later, another stamp mill was built to care for ore from the Chainman gold mine, but there was nothing phenomenal about the output and Ely remained a town with a single wagon-rutted street.

The town acquired its name from A.J. Underhill, who had borrowed $5,000 from John Ely of Pioche to buy and lay out the town site. Ely was typical western mining man. He had come to Pioche from Montana where, according to rumor, he had been an associate of Jack Slade, the former superintendent of the Julesburg section of the Overland Stage Company. Slade had been dismissed from the company because of his ungovernable temper when drunk and was later hanged by Montana vigilantes for his dangerous gun-waving. In Nevada, Ely paid $3,500 for a mine that was to produce more than $20,000,000, and then sold it for only a third of a million. On this, he lived well for a while, and then went to Paris, where he lost what remained along with his wife. He tried to drown his grief in whiskey, but recovered to make and lose several other fortunes before he died.

One evening in the summer of 1900, two young miners from Shasta County, California, arrived to work in mines near Ely. Dave Bartley and Edwin Gray, like most men from the mining states, were prospectors at heart and decided to look about before turning their services to other men’s profits. Among the claims they inspected was the Ruth, owned by D.C. McDonald, local justice of the peace, who had named it for his daughter. With the true prospector’s willingness to gamble on a hunch, the two decided to take a lease with an option to buy the Ruth and one other claim for $3,500. Bartley, who had been working in a copper district, believed there might be valuable copper deposits. W. B. Graham, owner of Ely’s general store, agreed to grubstake the newcomers. Though after two years, Bartley began to worry about the debt they were running up, Graham continued his subsidy.

The enthusiasm of Bartley and Gray drew Joe Bray of Austin to look over the Copper Flat claims a mile east of the Ruth, and he organized a company to exploit them. In late 1902, a stranger came to town, went straight to Bartley and Gray to ask their price on an option. When they quoted a price of $150,000, he invited them to go down to Ely and sign the papers. The stranger was Mark L. Requa, whose scout, posing as an inquisitive old Comstocker, had given a very favorable report on the prospects. The deal was closed that night, though only after a long argument because Gray insisted that all equipment installed should remain if the option were dropped. Requa had been manager of the little Eureka & Palisades Railroad, built by his father, Darius Ogden Mills, and other former Comstockers. He had decided that the old north-south road could be extended over three ranges to close the 85 miles from Eureka to Ely. Requa organized the White Pine Copper Company with eastern backing and then, as the great costs of development became apparent, managed to enlist further help. The result was that all holdings were consolidated as the Nevada Consolidated late in 1904, with Requa as vice-president and manager, and Colonel William Boyce Thompson as director. By this time, it had been decided that the extension of the old railroad was impractical and plans were made for immediate construction of the Nevada Northern down Steptoe Valley. The first train reached Ely in the fall of 1906 with a load of celebrities.

Thompson had been told of Ely prospects by George E. Gunn, who had made a small fortune at Tonopah and Goldfield and was ready to retire and enjoy the world. Thompson had asked Gunn to delay his world tour long enough to look over the Ely district thoroughly and report on it. Gunn came and stayed for eight years. He had taken options on several claims and also on the McGill Ranch, which controlled water rights to Duck Creek in the Steptoe Valley. Thompson had then organized the Cumberland-Ely Copper Company to take up the options, acting as agents for the Guggenheims. In time, the Cumberland-Ely Company managed to buy 40 percent of Nevada Consolidated’s shares and Thompson pushed plans for amalgamation of the two companies. Requa and others opposed the merger. They had planned to build their own smelter near Ely, using the waters of Murray Creek. Thompson himself had divided interests. As part owner of the McGill Ranch, he wanted the smelter built there, but as developer of East Ely, he favored the southern site. By this time, financiers, developers, and smelting experts from all over the country were passing in and out of town to examine prospects. Experts favored McGill for the smelter and advised against construction of two. Work on the smelter began in 1907 and the first ore was milled a year later. In 1910, the Cumberland-Ely was absorbed by Nevada Consolidated, which in turn became largely controlled by the Guggenheim’s Utah Copper Company.

West of Ely, this section of U.S. Highway 6 cuts diagonally across the State, for 170 miles passing through thinly inhabited country where filling-stations and other facilities—as well as water—are rare. The route is beautiful, however, and many connoisseurs of southwestern landscapes pick it as one of their favorites. Barren brown mountains are deeply fissured with purple; others, streaked with rose, green, and mauve, contrast with darker volcanic formations. One whole range, of salmon pink, becomes fiery red in the late afternoon.

For 50 miles, U.S. Highway 6 crosses rolling country dotted with dwarf pine and stained with iron oxides.

Junction with Nevada Highway 38 (24 miles west of East Ely on U.S. 6)

Side Trip to Preston and Lund (Nevada Highway 38 South)

Preston (6.1 miles south on NV 38, 1 mile south on Preston Avenue)

The settlements of Preston and Lund were the result of purchases by the Mormon Church about 1913, with a view to making it possible for members in search of new homes to obtain them on terms within their reach.

Lund (11.9 miles south on NV 38)

Lund was named for Mormon president Anthon Lund.

Currant (28 miles west of NV 38 on U.S. 6)

Side Trip to Duckwater Indian Reservation (Nevada Highway 379 North)

Duckwater Indian Reservation (18.7 miles north on NV 379)

Duckwater is a Western Shoshone reservation created in 1930. Western Shoshone is comprised of several Native American tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California and Utah. The tribe is very closely related to the Paiute, Goshute, Bannock and Ute tribes. Federally recognized Western Shoshone Tribes include Duckwater Shoshone Tribe (Ely, Nevada), Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada and its four Constituent Band Councils of Battle Mountain, Elko and Wells Colonies and South Fork Reservation), Timbisha Tribe of the Western Shoshone Nation (Death Valley, California region) and Yomba Western Shoshone Tribe (near Winnemucca, Nevada).

Junction with a Local Road (92.7 miles west of Ely on U.S. 6)

Side Trip to Moore’s and Pritchard’s Stations (Local Road North)

Moores Station (16.5 miles north on a local road)

This station was established in the early 1870’s soon after the four Moore brothers settled there and established a small ranch. It became a stage stop on the Belmont-Tybo-Eureka stage run. The brothers dug a small reservoir, brought in a number of fruit trees, and established one of Nevada’s first orchards. After the stage stopped running, the station had little purpose and the Moores left. The remains of Moore’s station are very impressive. The stage house is in excellent condition although that could change as no one is living there. Other buildings are also in good condition. The orchard is in poor condition but continues to bear fruit every year.

Moores Creek was an alternate route during the 1870’s for the Belmont-Austin stage when the normal route was impassable. By the 1880’s, the station had been abandoned and a small ranch began operations. The creek was named for a John A. Moore who settled there in the 1880’s. Moore was extremely poor until he leased a mine at Morey and made $30,000 that he used to buy the ranch. Although there was mining activity as late as 1908, nothing of consequence ever took place. There are no remains to mark the mine site.ii

The gold and silver ore find that was the origin of Morey was located only six miles from Moores Station. That was in 1867 but the camp wasn’t formed until 1869. The camp grew to the point in 1872 that warranted a post office. The story of Morey is that of a camp with multiple owners throughout its history who came and left because of financial problems of one kind or another. The post office closed in April of 1905 and the town was almost entirely abandoned. By 1909, Morey was empty. There were several attempts to revive the town but by 1926 Morey was a ghost town again. Total production value for Morey stands at only $475,000. A landslide that occurred during the 1950s obliterated most of Morey.iii

Pritchards Station (24 miles north on a local road)

The station was active between the 1870’s and 1880’s on the old Belmont-Tybo-Eureka stage line. The old stage station is in excellent condition in addition to which there are a few old corrals.iv

Central Nevada Test Site Base Camp (108.3 miles west of Ely on U.S. 6)

Side Trip to Tybo (Connecting Road/Tybo Road West)

Tybo (8.8 miles west on Connecting Road/Tybo Road)

This community was formerly one of the leading lead-producing districts in the nation. Producing erratically from ore discovery in 1866 to the present (the last mill closed in 1937), Tybo has managed to achieve an overall creditable record. Tybo, in its infancy, was known as a peaceful camp, but later refuted that claim when there occurred racial strife between the Irish, Cornish and Central Europeans; later these groups banded together to drive from the town a company of Chinese woodcutters.

The town was not unique in having three residential sections, each with its ethnic group. However, all children went to the same brick school.

Warm Springs (118 miles west of Ely on U.S. 6)

Not far away is a small rock house built in 1866 as a shelter for travelers. For many years it was a stopping-place for stagecoaches and freight teams on the Tonopah-Ely route.

Five-Mile Station (16 miles west of Warm Springs on U.S. 6)

This was known also as Clark's Station. This was another stage-station stop by a spring.

For 100 miles westward, U.S. Highway 6 now passes through one of the richest mineral areas in the United States. The barren and rocky mountains are continually brighter in color and more irregular in formation. Flat-topped hills mingle with conical peaks. Sometimes a coyote or jackrabbit darts off into the brush. North of Five-Mile Station is a section of the Toiyabe National Forest, the southern tip of which the highway crosses. Although the large area is called a forest, there are trees only on slopes far north. The forest is largely regulated grazing land, and a wild life preserve. Crossing Monitor Range in the reservation, U.S. 6 traverses a wide dry valley, with the San Antonio Range on the western skyline. Late in the day